There’s nothing better than a new Vogue Beauty Secrets video. We get to see inside a celebrity’s makeup or skincare routine for better or for worse. (Looking at you, Gwyneth). On Thursday, Vogue released our girl Olivia Rodrigo’s makeup routine and there are some gems inside the video. She reveals dermatitis she’s been dealing with, as well as where the 18-year-old gets breakouts. It’s sponsored by Glossier so of course, there are Glossier products strewn throughout—including an unreleased, top-secret lipstick launch.

Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale.

First, she pops Olly Multivitamin Gummys ($12.42 at Amazon), which she says taste as good as they make her hair look. The first step of her pre-makeup routine is washing her face with Epionce Milky Lotion Cleanser ($34 at Dermstore). “I had the worst case of dermatitis, where I just broke out all around my mouth and it was awful,” she says. “I think it was wearing masks a lot and also using a bunch of products that irritated my skin.” Now she’s all about a less-is-more approach.

She follows up her cleanser with a serum from The Ordinary, though we can’t tell exactly which one it is. Then she does a little relaxing Gua Sha. “I love alone time. I am very much an introvert,” she says. “And so doing stuff like that really helps energize me for whatever I’m doing in my work, or in my life. Next comes a little lip scrub and then the First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Tinted Moisturizer SPF 30 ($28 at Ulta).

Rodrigo then applies Glossier Stretch Concealer ($18 at Glossier), which she loves for its buttery feel and buildable coverage. Next comes a little blush and bronzer (we can’t tell what she’s using), followed by winged eyeliner with Glossier Pro Tip
brush point liquid eyeliner ($16 at Glossier). She fills in her brows with a pencil and then uses Glossier Boy Brow ($16 at Glossier) to set them. Next, she curls her lashes and applies what looks like the Milk Makeup Kush High Volumizing Mascara ($25 at Sephora).

Finally, here comes the top-secret, unreleased Glossier Ultralip Gloss.

YouTube.

“So the Ultralip has hyaluronic acid in it also which is great ’cause it keeps your lips moisturized which is very important for me,” she says. “I love how it’s buildable. I love the natural color of my lips. This just sort of accentuates that, it doesn’t try to cover it up or put a new color on top of it. It just emphasizes what you got.” She’s wearing the shade Ember.

We hear that the Ultralip is coming soon. It’s a lip tint with the sheen of a gloss and the moisture of a balm. Yes, we want it, too. We’ll update you as soon as it’s available.

In many ways, retirement feels like crossing the finish line of a very long race. It’s the milestone that we all work towards throughout our careers. But it’s important not to retire too early. Doing so could make it difficult to enjoy your newfound freedom.

Instead, you need to make sure that you’re prepared for retirement before you quit your job. Here are 10 things that you should do before you cross the finish line.

Create a Long Term Care Plan

The average person spends three years in long-term care. You should know what that process is going to look like for you before you quit your job.

Start Exploring New Hobbies

You’re going to have a ton of free time when you retire. Instead of waiting until then to discover your next passion, start working on that now. You’ll be glad you did.

Strengthen Your Friendships

As you move away from the workplace, you may find yourself feeling lonely and unuseful. That’s where strong relationships with friends come in. They’ll help you pick yourself back up whenever you need it and will make your retirement a time of joy.

Make Travel Plans

Many people use retirement as an opportunity to take a long-awaited trip. But there’s no need to wait until you quit your job to begin planning that trip. Use your time now to figure out where you’ll go so that you can hit the road as soon as you’re ready.

Create Your Retirement Bucket List

Everyone has a list of things they want to try before it’s too late. Make sure that you’ve put together yours before retiring. Doing so can help you structure your retirement around your biggest goals.

Figure Out Your Retirement Numbers

Before quitting your job, you should have a clear understanding of how much money you’ll have coming in each month. It’s important that you’re comfortable with this number before you retire.

Verify Your Life Insurance Coverage

Older adults need to think about life insurance a bit more than younger adults. Make sure that you’re happy with the details of your plan before you quit your job.

Get Out of Debt

If you’re able to, it’s important to get out of debt before retiring. Doing so will eliminate all unnecessary payments from your budget, allowing you to make the most on a fixed income.

Update Your Estate Plan

Things change as our lives progress. It’s possible that you may need to make updates to your estate plan if you haven’t done so in a while. Regardless, it’s a good idea to verify that you’re still happy with it before you retire.

Find the Right Medicare Plan

Medicare can be a bit complex. But it’s important that you determine which plan is right for you before you retire and sign up for it. Whether you prefer Medicare Advantage or Original Medicare, you don’t have to decide alone.

For many of us, retirement is our ultimate professional and personal goal throughout our working years. Using the list in this article can help you get started and on your way toward a successful and stress-free retirement.

Do you have a list of things to do before you retire? Which ones have you already done? If you are retired, how did you prepare for retirement? Was there an important step you should have taken, but didn’t? Please share with the community!

So much in our lives goes unnoticed around us because of our busy-ness, the rut of monotonous routines and the dulling of our expectations. The Universe, though, loves to speak to us through the mundane and the ordinary right in front of us. There is magic always waiting to explode in our lives through one simple act – noticing.

Noticing Is Essential to Becoming Your Best Self

Noticing is essential if we are to become who we truly want to be. “Becoming” almost always requires us to change, but how can we change unless we first notice what needs changing? Sometimes it’s our family, close friends or daily contacts who will point out an aggravating habit, negative attitude or action that we are not aware of.

A friend of mine was a struggling and super stressed first-year teacher. One day a student asked her why she always walked around with her fists clenched. She had never before noticed this telling habit.

That was the moment she recognized and admitted how anxious and miserable she was teaching, and it prompted her to honestly re-evaluate her career choice. The next year she went back to school and trained for another profession that brought her greater satisfaction, fulfillment and fewer tears.

Rely on the Voice Within

But we can also learn a lot about ourselves and what needs to change if we’ stay tuned in to our deepest emotions.Several years ago, I invested a lot of my personal finances to create a design product that I loved but struggled to find a marketable niche. How I hated the business part!

I was determined, though, to hang in there and make it successful. Deep down inside, my emotions were yelling, “I don’t want to do this anymore.” But I ignored it.

After months of exhaustion and frustration, I woke up one morning clearly hearing, “Put it away, take your losses and move on.” What I noticed most about this inner voice was that there was nothing emotional about it now. It was an honest, realistic appraisal of my situation, and I was ready to hear it. I knew it was time. I packed my product away and moved on.

Noticing Transforms Your Home into a Sacred Space

I nourish homes. My top priority as an interior designer is to transform an ordinary space into a safe, nurturing, sacred space. Our personal spaces should welcome and cradle us.

We should feel a sigh of relief every time we walk through our front door because this is where we can truly be who we are meant to be. Our home is meant to be a soft place to land and a strong place to launch us every day.

It’s All in the Details

Creating a sacred space is far more than the obvious design elements like choosing a new wall color or sofa fabric. It’s also about noticing the unseen elements – the energetic and spiritual connections. A beautiful, supportive space is found in the details of all three.

I have had clients who were drowning in clutter and didn’t realize it. They had ignored the clutter for so long that it simply became part of the background of their living space. Once they noticed it, they began to feel how diminished the beauty, brilliance and energetic balance in their home had been.

Keep Your Spiritual Connections Front and Center

I love to bring spiritual connections into a home by helping my clients create a personal altar or display a sacred symbol that allows them to express their beliefs, personality, hopes, dreams and intentions. Both are great ways to keep this most important part of our lives front and center each day.

Don’t let your dreams and aspirations fade into the busyness and overwhelm of life. Notice and nourish them daily so they can bring you continual encouragement and strengthening of heart and spirit.

Noticing Allows Us to Savor Life

Research has shown that the happiest people are those who take time to notice and appreciate the little things in life. They have learned to savor the ordinary and discover their own meaning and joy through it.

I experienced a moment to savor recently while baby-sitting my 16-month-old grandson. I was keeping him for a weekend while his parents were out of town, so I had plenty of time to hold him in my lap and sing to him, which is one of my favorite things to do.

This one special time, though, I noticed how intently he was watching my face and every word I was forming. Suddenly, he reached up with his little fingers and pressed them to my lips.

The Power of Small Moments

It was such a small thing, an almost unnoticeable thing that has happened to millions of parents and grandparents around the world throughout the centuries.

But as I allowed myself to linger in and feel the beauty of that moment, I was so overcome by this love and connection to my first-born grandchild that my eyes filled with tears.

In sharing this story with friends and family, it’s been hard to express the depth of love and emotion that I felt. But with every retelling, I get to savor this moment over and over again. The beauty of what could have passed in a flash unnoticed will continue to linger throughout my lifetime.

Marvel in the Mundane

Noticing is one of the most important practices we will ever cultivate. Look for epiphanies and messages in the small things, the quiet things and the people you almost didn’t see. There is magic in the ordinary and mundane. Marvel in it and discover that no day in your life has to be lived without miracles.

How often do you stop what you’re doing and just notice the little things around you? What special moment made you pause recently? Have you made a habit of noticing or do you go through life in a busy, unintentional manner? Please share with the community!

Many have fantasies about leaving home and moving to a destination that calls your heart. There are lots of articles about expat living, the joys and challenges of adjusting to a new country and new culture. But few people talk about what it’s like to move back to your own country.

Before I continue, I want to make one point clear: expat is a term of white privilege. We leave our homeland voluntarily and call ourselves expats. But really, you are an immigrant, just like everyone else. You will legalize your status in your new country in the office of immigration.

From Expat to Repat

I lived for 25 years in Merida, Mexico because I married a local. I became the mother of two children and raised them in Mexican schools from K-12. Because my children had dual citizenship, I wanted it too, and became a Mexican citizen.

It made my life a lot easier living as a citizen in Mexico. I sent my kids to college in the U.S. and after they graduated, choosing their places in the world, I built my empty nest home in Merida. After a few years, I realized I wanted to return to the U.S.

Why did I do it? I’ve learned: we all want what we don’t have. Whilst retirees come to Mexico from all over the world for the warm climate and the cheap cost of living, I went back to winter and the high cost of living. That was “my different.”

The new arrivals were thrilled by the challenges of living a Mexican life, and I wanted nothing to do with the hardships anymore. I had lived this supposedly glamorous life, and now I wanted the urbanity of a sophisticated city.

I had lain on white sand beaches year round, I had eaten enough guacamole to last a lifetime. I had a hacienda in the jungle and maids and gardeners to help me maintain it.

But I was miserable. Now I’m living in a small one-bedroom flat in Chicago, and I love it. So, what can you expect when you return to your homeland?

Easier Paperwork

I no longer have a need for multiple bank accounts in two countries. I don’t need to think about exchange rates. I can pay my bills online and in the mail. In Merida I had to spend one day a month driving to the electric company, gas company, water company, phone company, cell phone company and stand in lines to pay the bills in cash, by hand.

I now have packages delivered from around the world and dependable mail service. (Mail service in Mexico is terrible; entirely unreliable at best.) Duplicate sets of paperwork and dealing with retirement benefits online, lots of phone calls, medical issues, U.S. credit cards and having to contact international numbers when something doesn’t work. Ouf!

You See Your Country with New Eyes

When I arrived back to Chicago, I felt like a foreigner all over again. I call it, repat. I had to get used to a new pace, new sounds and smells, learn a new bureaucracy, figure out how to get a senior citizen bus card, what tax breaks were available, signing up for all the medical care and prescription drug plans.

I saw my country with new eyes, delighting in the efficiency and ease of certain operations. I appreciated the cleanliness and ease of movement on public transportation, which is for all people, not just the poor, as in Mexico. I reveled in Chicago’s world class offerings: museums, galleries, theatre, dance. I enjoy grocery shopping with new eyes.

Adjusting to a New Cost of Living

Before I moved back to the U.S. I couldn’t understand how I could afford to go back to a higher cost of living as a retired person. I drew up budgets and scared myself… and then made the move anyway!

It turns out that the lifestyle I chose is indeed affordable. How to Live Like A Millionaire on A Retirement Budget, my book, explains it all. It’s a question of mindset and financial savvy. Life is short; we can’t be ruled by our fears.

Getting Involved

In Mexico it was difficult for me to get involved in politics and social issues because I was always a gringa — meaning non Mexican. Even though I had citizenship, I was somehow not equal under the law, perhaps because the society is not a melting pot like the U.S.

The fact is, I do like to be involved and active in the particular issues that affect society and the world, and I find it much easier to do in my own country.

Blending in

When I got back to the U.S. there was a huge psychological relief in that I could walk down the street unnoticed. In Mexico, I was always noticed, I stood out, I was a foreigner, no matter that I had lived there 25 years, that I was a Mexican citizen. In Mexico I might get better treatment, worse treatment or condescending treatment.

Living as a foreigner in another country has made me more sensitive to the plight of immigrants in the U.S. and all around the world. A look at the front page of any newspaper and you see the big issue of our times is immigration. It has made me more sensitive to cultural differences, to the concept of acceptance and belonging.

Gratitude

I am living in a state of gratitude, appreciating things about life in my home country that I would have previously taken for granted or not thought about at all. I changed one country’s problems and challenges for another country’s issues.

I feel like a world citizen now, more able to move easily through the world. Are there things I miss about my life in Mexico? Yes, of course. But I can go back and enjoy them – as a tourist now. I can have the best of both worlds.

Have you ever dreamed of moving somewhere else to live? Are you currently an immigrant/expat? Do you want to go back to your home country? Or have you recently moved back to your home country after living elsewhere? Your comments are the best part of this article, so get cracking in the comments box below!

There’s nothing better than a new Vogue Beauty Secrets video. We get to see inside a celebrity’s makeup or skincare routine for better or for worse. (Looking at you, Gwyneth). On Thursday, Vogue released our girl Olivia Rodrigo’s makeup routine and there are some gems inside the video. She reveals dermatitis she’s been dealing with, as well as where the 18-year-old gets breakouts. It’s sponsored by Glossier so of course, there are Glossier products strewn throughout—including an unreleased, top-secret lipstick launch.

Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale.

First, she pops Olly Multivitamin Gummys ($12.42 at Amazon), which she says taste as good as they make her hair look. The first step of her pre-makeup routine is washing her face with Epionce Milky Lotion Cleanser ($34 at Dermstore). “I had the worst case of dermatitis, where I just broke out all around my mouth and it was awful,” she says. “I think it was wearing masks a lot and also using a bunch of products that irritated my skin.” Now she’s all about a less-is-more approach.

She follows up her cleanser with a serum from The Ordinary, though we can’t tell exactly which one it is. Then she does a little relaxing Gua Sha. “I love alone time. I am very much an introvert,” she says. “And so doing stuff like that really helps energize me for whatever I’m doing in my work, or in my life. Next comes a little lip scrub and then the First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Tinted Moisturizer SPF 30 ($28 at Ulta).

Rodrigo then applies Glossier Stretch Concealer ($18 at Glossier), which she loves for its buttery feel and buildable coverage. Next comes a little blush and bronzer (we can’t tell what she’s using), followed by winged eyeliner with Glossier Pro Tip
brush point liquid eyeliner ($16 at Glossier). She fills in her brows with a pencil and then uses Glossier Boy Brow ($16 at Glossier) to set them. Next, she curls her lashes and applies what looks like the Milk Makeup Kush High Volumizing Mascara ($25 at Sephora).

Finally, here comes the top-secret, unreleased Glossier Ultralip Gloss.

YouTube.

“So the Ultralip has hyaluronic acid in it also which is great ’cause it keeps your lips moisturized which is very important for me,” she says. “I love how it’s buildable. I love the natural color of my lips. This just sort of accentuates that, it doesn’t try to cover it up or put a new color on top of it. It just emphasizes what you got.” She’s wearing the shade Ember.

We hear that the Ultralip is coming soon. It’s a lip tint with the sheen of a gloss and the moisture of a balm. Yes, we want it, too. We’ll update you as soon as it’s available.